Bryan County’s twin recreation departments expect to make — and spend — more than $440,000 on rec activities in 2014, according to the recreation budget the Board of Commissioners adopted Tuesday in Pembroke.
The lion’s share of the total comes from the South Bryan Recreation Department, which projects $373,072 in revenue and the same amount in expenses.
Hendrix Park in North Bryan will take in $67,459 in revenue spend the same, according to the budget given to the board and passed with little discussion, though commission Chairman Jimmy Burnsed offered newer commissioners a brief history lesson on how recreation came under the county’s umbrella.
“Prior to whatever date, there was a recreation association in the north end and one in the south end and they did their own thing,” Burnsed said. “We didn’t even get involved instead of providing fields and all that.”
About two years ago, Burnsed said, “all of that came to an end because (the money) needed to be accounted for and audited.
They desired to have that done … and it’s been working well since.”
The county’s chief financial officer, John Groother, said the county is now the custodian of the funds, “so we have to operate within the auditing guidelines for the management of that money.”
Though the budget passed Tuesday doesn’t include taxpayer dollars spent on rec facilities or salaries, it does show how much revenue and expenditures each sport generates.
Further, South Bryan’s budget includes $50,000 in donations expected to generate about $300 in interest and boosts the overall revenue in the combined budget to slightly more than $490,000.
By the numbers
When it comes to which programs make and spend the most, baseball is No. 1 on both ends of the county.
South Bryan’s expected baseball budget is $73,500, while North Bryan is budgeting $24,455 — both are the biggest ticket items in their respective budgets. And that’s where the similarities end, for the most part.
For example, the second most popular sport in South Bryan in terms of the budget is soccer, with $72,234 budgeted. That’s followed in descending order by the SBRCD summer camp with a $51,000 budget.
Football is fourth at $44,485, basketball is fifth at $33,302 and academy soccer has a $29,783 budget.
Concessions are $21,000, while SBRCD will make and spend slightly more than $14,200 on wrestling, nearly $11,000 on softball and about $8,900 on cheerleading.
Adult softball, skating, Smart Start and other programs are also included in the South Bryan budget.
North Bryan, on the other hand, has a 2014 budget that includes $18,947 in concessions, $8,458 for soccer and $8,125 for football.
Basketball has a budget of $3,400 while special events will rake in and spend $2,401. Cheerleading is last with a budget of $1,371.